3 Million Motorists Fear Failing

Surprisingly it is the younger motorists who are most fearful of failure, with 15 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds believing they were ‘quite unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to achieve a pass, according to the AA/Populus study. Of the 16,961 AA members questioned, nine per cent said they were ‘quite likely’ to fail, while two per cent felt they were ‘very likely’ to do so. Londoners were the most confident of passing with only nine per cent fearing they would not be able to attain a pass, while drivers from the Tyne-Tees area were the most pessimistic about their chances, with 13 per cent believing a tester would fail them. AA president Edmund King said: ‘It is alarming to think more than three million drivers who have passed their test may not be safe on the roads due to a lack of confidence or competence to such a degree they don’t think they would pass their driving test. ‘It is particularly worrying so many young drivers think they would not pass a retest, when it can’t have been long since they took their test. ‘Driving is a skill for life and, although it is easy to let bad habits form after your test, drivers should make sure their skills are kept polished.’ Men were considerably more confident about their chances of passing a resit than woman with 32 per cent of the males surveyed believing they were ‘very likely’ to pass. Only 23 per cent of women shared that confidence. In total, 28 per cent of drivers felt they were ‘very likely’ to pass, with 55 per cent ‘quite likely’ to succeed.